Dhawal shares the history of online courses and the Massive Open Online Course revolution of the early 2010s.

We also talk about his childhood growing up in India, and how his life changed one day when he won a computer from a Cartoon Network sweepstakes.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

You can listen to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. You can also listen to the podcast below, right in your browser:

Dhawal took me out for traditional Mumbai food – vegetarian, and eaten with your hands. It was delicious.

Links we discuss during the conversation:

• Dhawal's article Here are 850+ Ivy League Courses You Can Take Right Now for Free
• Dhawal's article I uncovered 1700 Coursera Courses that Are Still Completely Free
• Dhawal on Twitter

Dhawal's 3 recommended Massive Open Online Courses:

1. Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects
2. University of Alberta's Mountains 101 Course
3. Stanford's Data Structures and Algorithms Course

Today I'm excited to announce that we've launched a Hindi-language YouTube channel.

The freeCodeCamp Hindi YouTube Channel

So far, we already have two full courses on the channel: Flutter and Python.

And Saturday we will live-stream the first segment of our 5-week-long Data Science with Python course.

You can subscribe to the freeCodeCamp Hindi channel here.

This channel is run by prolific YouTuber Pawan Kumar.

Pawan is a Google Developer Expert for technologies like Flutter, Dart, and Firebase. He also runs a tech youtube channel called MTECHVIRAL.

Pawan works as a head of Mobile Engineering at Frontier Wallet. He started his career as an Android dev when he was in college. He likes to experiment with new technologies, and talk about them at events and on his Twitter.

Pawan has helped many developers until now around the world in learning new technologies and getting tech jobs.

"When I was a child, I didn’t have many resources to learn new things. So I decided to help others in learning new awesome things." – Pawan Kumar

And this lead to him creating the official Hindi-language freeCodeCamp YouTube channel.

The future of freeCodeCamp's Internationalization Efforts

Our community is making steady progress in our internationalization efforts. Look for some other big announcements in the coming months.

Our goal is to eventually have a translated curriculum for every major world language, launch YouTube channels in more major languages.

Again, you can subscribe to the Hindi YouTube channel here.

Happy coding.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Science (IISc) are some of India’s most prestigious institutes of higher learning. They are also the toughest to get into.

Every year, over 1 million students sit for entrance exams to be admitted to one of the 23 IITs. Just 10,000 will ultimately be granted a spot — an admission rate of less than 1%.

Luckily for us, both the IITs and the IISc release hundreds of free courses every fall and spring through their massive open online course (MOOC) platform, the National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning, or NPTEL.

NPTEL is a joint initiative of the IITs and IISc that makes science and engineering courses available to the public. (You can learn more about MOOCs in general here.)

This spring, NPTEL has launched 290 courses from 16 different universities — 11 of which are IITs. Already, more than 600,000 students have enrolled in these free courses.

NPTEL courses tend to be more rigorous and advanced than typical MOOCs. So if you take one of these courses, be prepared for some serious studying.

Also, NPTEL courses tend to have firm deadlines. Some courses below start as early as January 28, so be sure to sign up before the start date!

Below is the full list of courses. And you can check out Class Central for our comprehensive catalog of reviews for free online courses from over 900 universities around the world.

_[Class Central](https://www.class-central.com/" rel="noopener" target="blank" title=")’s home page.

Computer Science (28)

• Joy of computing using Python from Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar
• Matlab Programming For Numerical Computation from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Database Management System from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Programming in Java from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Programming in C++ from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Problem solving through Programming In C from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms in Python from Chennai Mathematical Institute
• AI:Knowledge Representation and Reasoning from Indian Institute of Technology Madras ★★★★☆(1)
• Design and Analysis of Algorithms from Chennai Mathematical Institute ★★★☆☆(1)
• Information Security — 5 — Secure Systems Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Deep Learning — Part 2 from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Machine Learning for Engineering and Science Applications from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Foundations to Computer Systems Design from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Blockchain Architecture and Use Cases from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Computer Architecture and Organisation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Cloud Computing from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Soft Computing from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Discrete Structures from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Network Analysis for Mines and Mineral Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Automata, Languages and Computation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Cryptography and Network Security from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Compiler Design from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Hardware Security from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Embedded System Design with ARM from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Real Time Operating System from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Internet of Things from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Machine Learning,ML from KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Computer Organization and Architecture: A Pedagogical Aspect from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Parallel Algorithms from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Randomized Algorithms from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Computer Aided Power System Analysis from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Basics of software-defined radios and practical applications from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Advanced IOT Applications from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Engineering (112)

• Computational Fluid Dynamics from Indian Institute of Technology Madras ★★★★☆(1)
• Earth Sciences For Civil Engineering Part — I & II from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur ★★★☆☆(1)
• Theory And Practice Of Non Destructive Testing from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Offshore structures under special loads including Fire resistance from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Geosynthetics and Reinforced Soil Structures from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Fundamentals of electronic materials and devices from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Electrochemical impedance Spectroscopy from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• LDPC and Polar Codes in 5G Standard from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Material Characterization from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Multirate DSP from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Process Control — Design, Analysis and Assessment from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Advanced Topics in the Science and Technology of Concrete from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Non-Conventional Energy Resources from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Spray Theory from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Medical Biomaterials from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Engineering Mechanics:Statics and Dynamics from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Welding Processes from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Control engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Advance Aircraft Maintenance from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Basics of Finite Element Analysis-I from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Manufacturing Process Technology I & II from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Defects in Crystalline Solids (Part-II) from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Electromagnetic Waves in Guided and Wireless Medium from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Product Design and Manufacturing from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Systems Engineering: Theory & Practice from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Principles of Signals and Systems from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Solar Photovoltaics: Principles, Technologies & Materials from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Rapid Manufacturing from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Advanced Green Manufacturing Systems from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Total Quality Management — II from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction to Airplane performance from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Principles of Communication Systems-I from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction to Coding Theory from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Hydration, Porosity & Strength of Cementitious Materials from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction To Composites from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Engineering Thermodynamics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Heat Transfer from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Advanced Transition Metal Organometallic Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Analog Circuits from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Antennas from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Fundamental of Power Electronics from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Chemical Process Control from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Geotechnical Engineering II Foundation Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Microprocessors and Microcontrollers from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Mass, Momentum and Energy Balances in Engineering Analysis from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Electronic Packaging and Manufacturing from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Digital Electronic Circuits from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Industrial Automation and Control from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Quality Design and Control from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Kinematics of Mechanisms and Machines from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Concepts of Thermodynamics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Modern Digital Communication Techniques from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Evolution of Air Interface towards 5G from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Power System Dynamics, Control and Monitoring from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Soil Mechanics/Geotechnical Engineering I from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Electrical Machines — II from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Mechanical Micro Machining from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Satellite Attitude Dynamics and Control from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Fluid Mechanics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Landscape Architecture and Site Planning — Basic Fundamentals from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Machinery Fault Diagnosis and Signal Processing from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Surface Engineering for Corrosion and Wear Resistance Application from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Power System Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Biomedical Signal Processing from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Theory of Yarn Structure from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Energy Efficiency, Acoustics and daylighting in Building from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Semiconductors Optoelectronics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Principles of Digital Communications from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Electric Vehicles — Part 1 from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Thermodynamics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Electromagnetic compatibility, EMC from KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Transport Phenomena of Non-Newtonian Fluids from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Polymer Assisted Abrasive Finishing Processes from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Fundamental of Welding Science and Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Fluid Flow Operations from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Subsurface exploration :importance and techniques involved from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• IC Engines and Gas Turbines from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Principles of Mechanical Measurement from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Introduction to Machining and Machining Fluids from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Weldability of Metals from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Fiber Optics from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Waste to Energy Conversion from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Introduction to Remote Sensing from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Dynamical System and Control from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Radiative Heat Transfer from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Advance power electronics and Control from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• CMOS Digital VLSI Design from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Housing Policy & Planning from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Material Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Convective Heat Transfer from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Joining Technologies for Metals from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Advanced Engineering Mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Manufacturing Guidelines for Product Design from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Inspection and Quality Control in Manufacturing from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Equipment Design: Mechanical Aspects from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Mechanical Operations from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Principles and Applications of Building Science from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Modelling and Simulation of Dynamic Systems from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Digital Land Surveying and Mapping(DLS&M) from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Principles of Casting Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Steam and Gas Power Systems from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Surface Engineering of Nanomaterials from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Automatic Control from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Friction and wear of materials: principles and case studies from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Electronic Modules for Industrial Applications using Op-Amps from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
• Mathematical Methods and Techniques in Signal Processing from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
• Symmetry and Structure in the Solid State from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
• Advances in UHV Transmission and Distribution from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
• Fundamentals of semiconductor devices from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
• Thermodynamics & Kinetics from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali
• Creep deformation of materials from Indian Institute Of Technology Bhubaneswar

Mathematics (16)

• Psychiatry — An overview from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur ★★★★☆(1)
• Statistical Mechanics from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Descriptive Statistics with R Software from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introductory Mathematical Methods for Biologists from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Basic Linear Algebra from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Commutative Algebra from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Galois Theory from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Transform Calculus and its applications in Differential Equations from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Integral and Vector Calculus from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Probability and Statistics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Statistical Inference from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• MCDM Techniques Using R from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Multivariable calculus from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Mathematical methods and its applications from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Graph Theory from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
• Discrete Mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar

Science (41)

• Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur ★★★☆☆(1)
• Bioreactors from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Chemical Principles II from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Introduction to Photonics from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Introduction to Research from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Principles of Downstream techniques in Bioprocess from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Demystifying The Brain from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Medicinal Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Animal Physiology from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction To Professional Scientific Communication from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Human Molecular Genetics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Solid State Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Forest Biometry from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Laser: Fundamentals and Applications from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Natural Hazards — Part-1 from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• BioMEMS and Microsystems from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction to Solid State Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Cell Culture Technologies from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction to Finite Volume Methods II from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Wild Life Ecology from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Organometallic Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Bioengineering: An Interface with Biology and Medicine from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Quantum Mechanics I from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Metal Mediated Synthesis-I from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Molecular Spectroscopy: A Physical Chemist’s perspective from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Chemical Reaction Engineering II from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Electronic Waste Management — Issues and Challenges from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Conduction and Convection Heat Transfer from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Reactive Intermediates Carbene and Nitrene from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Experimental Biochemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Industrial Inorganic Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Experimental Physics I from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Plastic Waste Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Soil Science and Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• A brief course on Superconductivity from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Mass Transfer Operations -I from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Environmental Remediation of Contaminated Sites from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Applied Environmental Microbiology from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Learning about Learning: A Course on Neurobiology of Learning and Memory from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
• Multidimensional NMR Spectroscopy for Structural Studies of Biomolecules from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Humanities (12)

• Postmodernism in Literature from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Introduction to World Literature from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• English language for Competitive exams from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Better Spoken English from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• The Nineteenth-Century English Novel from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• American Literature & Culture from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• English Literature of the Romantic Period, 1798–1832 from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Postcolonial Literature from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Qualitative Research Methods and Research Writing from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Privacy and Security in Online Social Media from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Literature, Culture and Media from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Teaching And Learning in Engineering (TALE) from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Data Science (6)

• Data Science for Engineers from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Bio-Informatics:Algorithms and Applications from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Data Analysis & Decision Making — II from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Applications of interactomics using Genomics and proteomics technologies from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Data Mining from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Big Data Computing from Indian Institute of Technology Patna

Social Sciences (19)

• Patent Law For Engineers And Scientists from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Language and Mind from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Patent Drafting for Beginners from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Feminist Writings from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Infrastructure Planning and Managements from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Introduction to Basic Cognitive Processes from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• An Introduction to Microeconomics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Introduction to the Pyschology of Language from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Calculus for Economics,Commerce and Management from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
• Roadmap for patent creation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Foundation Course in Managerial Economics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Emotional Intelligence from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Cognitive Psychology from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Introduction to Political Theory from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Human Behaviour from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Urban governance and Development Management (UGDM) from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Sociology of Science from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Perspectives on Neurolinguistic from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Social networks from Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar

Education & Teaching (3)

• Managing Intellectual Property in Universities from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Effective Engineering Teaching In Practice from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Designing Learner-Centric MOOCs from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Art & Design (10)

• Appreciating Carnatic Music from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Design Thinking — A Primer from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Introduction to History of Architecture in India from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Multimodal Interaction from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Elements of Visual Representation from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Architectural Conservation and Historic Preservation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Introduction to Modern Indian Drama from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
• Product design and development from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Visual Communication Design for Digital Media from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• User Interface Design from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Health & Medicine (4)

• Manage TB from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Current regulatory requirements for conducting clinical trials in India from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Health Research Fundamentals from National Institute of Epidemiology
• Electronic Systems for Cancer Diagnosis from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Business (26)

• Operations and supply chain management from Indian Institute of Technology Madras
• Marketing Management — II from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Management of Field Sales from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Consumer Behaviour from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Managing change in organizations from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Novel Technologies for Food Processing and Shelf Life Extension from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Sales and Distribution Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Entrepreneurship Essentials from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Services Marketing: A Practical Approach from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Six Sigma from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Principles of Human Resource Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Financial Institutions and Markets from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Soft Skills for Business Negotiations and Marketing Strategies from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Business Analytics for Management Decision from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Advanced Textile Printing Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Testing of Functional and Technical Textiles from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Textured Yarn Technology from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Evalutions of Textile Materials from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
• Financial Statement Analysis and Reporting from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Financial Mathematics from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Global Marketing Management from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Marketing Research and Analysis-II from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Business analytics and data mining Modeling using R from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Supply Chain Analytics from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Manufacturing Strategy from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
• Business Statistics from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Personal Development (3)

• Enhancing Soft Skills and Personality from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• Speaking Effectively from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
• Employment Communication A Lab based course from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Last weekend, we hosted Hack36, our first-ever hackathon at Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology in Allahabad. It was easily one of the largest student-lead hackathons in India.

Over 600 developers from 21 different cities across India signed up for the event, vying for 100,000 Indian Rupees in prizes.

After a thorough analysis of their resumes, as well as open source profiles, we chose 180 hackers to compete.

We also had guest speakers, including the creator of freeCodeCamp.org himself, Quincy Larson.

Quincy Larson during one of the talks

As the tech coordinator of the event, I got to interact with all 52 teams personally. Not all the teams were able to implement their idea, but all of them did a commendable job during those 36 hours.

Since I had a firsthand insight of all the products developed, I decided to share the winners and my own top picks from Hack36.

DEXTER — First Place

Team: Abhishek Sharma, Himanshu Shekhar, Souvik Sen, Madhurjya Pegu
Code: https://github.com/himanshub16/dexter

Ever wondered if you could talk to your computer in your natural language, and it writes the code for you, and that too in your favorite language? Well, Dexter is an AI-based code editor that allows you to code simultaneously in JavaScript and Python just by conversing with it.

It supports two of the most widely used languages in the country, Hindi and English. And in my opinion, it has, perhaps, the best design and interface among all the products developed.

Jarvis Bot — First Runner Up

Team: Mohit Khare, Abhey Rana, Prabhat Singh, Avishek Santhaliya
Code: https://github.com/mkfeuhrer/JarvisBot

It’s an intelligent bot that lets you perform utility and fun stuff like games. Built with Python and ZulipChat-API, Jarvis-Bot is the most feature-rich unofficial ZulipChat Bot. It has a bunch of features including dictionary based search and to-do list.

You can even use this bot to log in to a remote system through SSH. The bot also features four interesting games such as Hangman, Scrabble etc, all available at the click of a button. Isn’t it cool ..?

MedX — Second Runner Up

Team: Rashmitha Yellapragada, Gunjan Singh, Naguboyina Sravya, Vrinda Agarwal
Code: https://github.com/sravya31/hacker-champs

MedX is a platform for easy storage and access of electronic medical records(EMR) that would revolutionize the current health care services. It uses the Ethereum block chain to record patient’s medical information. It grants the user complete control over his/her own medical records and allows to make certain aspects public or private, while still being stored in a decentralized way.

The documents are being stored on IPFS. Moreover, the app also implements certain access control levels to make sure one gets access only to the required data and not the complete medical history of a patient.

TabORanger — Chrome Extension

Team: Abhinav Dixit, Vaibhav Bhardwaj, ARPIT GUPTA, SUSHANT OBEROI
Code: https://github.com/soc3/TabORanger

Developers, in general, have lots of tabs opened in the browser. After a certain number of tabs, it gets really difficult to manage those. TabORanger, a chrome extension, groups tabs on the basis of the web page content using Machine Learning.

The extension also has an option to categorize the tabs on the basis of titles instead of the whole page content to make the whole process much faster.

SocioIntegrate App

Team: Yerra Bala Praneeth Kumar, PRANAYKUMAR ANUGURTI, Poorna Chandu Gade, Kandula Sumanth
Code: https://github.com/PraneethYerra/hack36-android

This is actually one of my favorites solely due to its unique idea and implementation.The SocioIntegrate App attempts to mitigate the gap between the Facebook Friends engaging them in an Anonymous Chat Game.

The game involves both users connecting randomly based on their interests (data retrieved from Facebook Graph API). Then they play a game (chat till a threshold limit of messages) to reveal the name of their friend. The one who succeeds first gains Flame Points. A user can then use his gained flame points to Prank a Friend on the app itself where the other user doesn’t know the details about him. The Points can also be redeemed at certain outlets.

EyeVis

Team: Akshit Sharma, Divyanshu Kapoor, SATYAM KUMAR GUPTA, Aman Shroff
Code: https://github.com/khitk9738/EyeVis

It’s a Project(Python/Android) based on Object detection using Google’s Tensor-flow to provide vision to the blind, further implementing Optical Character Recognition, Read It Aloud, Google translations for different languages & Scene Recognition saving day-to-day problems of millions.

The idea is not much unique but the way the app is hacked using a bunch of APIs and third-party services really makes it stand out from the crowd. The app if implemented properly and trained on a good data set can really make a difference for a certain part of the community.

Alexa Care Buddy

Team: Ashish Jha, Rohan Maity, Saumya Wardhan, Siddharth Kathuria
Code: https://github.com/TheDreamSaver/hack36-alexa-healthcare

As the name suggests, it’s an Alexa app that aims to find nearby medical stores on the basis of medicine searched. It also suggests a substitute for the medicine in case the searched medicine is not available.

The app also has an inbuilt navigation to guide a user to the shop. Moreover, the app can also guide you through simple first-aid procedures like the sprain, paper cut etc. It can also teach you common procedures like CPR in cases of emergencies.

FInal Words

Even though it was only the first of its kind event in the College, the event was a great success. It marked the first of many such developers events yet to be organized. I hope the legacy continues !!

The above list was compiled by me and some interesting ideas might have left out. Please suggest those ideas in the comments. :D

“No one can see a bubble. That’s what makes it a bubble.” — The Big Short

You must be familiar with the above quote if you’ve watched the Christian Bale movie The Big Short. Does that mean the Bitcoin is a bubble waiting to burst? Maybe. The truth is no one knows just yet. It’s difficult to assess whether something is a bubble by simply reading the news or following the market. So, let’s begin by understanding what is a Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a decentralized, digital cryptocurrency. Confused? Let’s take an example. Let’s say that you are ordering headphones from Amazon via a seller and you want to know exactly where they’ve been before they were shipped to you. How do you find out? The answer is, you cannot. You can’t know the exact source of the product and you definitely cannot find out all the transactions related to those specific headphones.

Imagine if there was some sort of a digital ledger that could tell you all that and more? There is. Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that stores all transactions related to a specific product or asset. But then what is a Bitcoin? Blockchain technology is what makes the Bitcoin possible.

Bitcoin is a peer to peer decentralized digital currency that is used to buy and sell products online. Decentralized means that the Bitcoin is not managed or issued by a company, government or financial institution. Bitcoin uses blockchain to store all transactions in a digital ledger which is then accessible to everyone globally using their computers. Now that you understand the basics, let’s understand why there is so much hype surrounding the Bitcoin.

coindesk.com

1 Bitcoin costs $10,886.85 at the time of writing this article. Crazy, right? Bitcoin was worth $1 in April 2011 and now, 6 years down the line, it’s worth more than 10,000 times its original value. But, why is the price of the Bitcoin so high? Bitcoin’s growing demand and the awareness amongst the public about cryptocurrencies is causing the price of the Bitcoin to rise.

The price of the Bitcoin has been fluctuating a lot recently but some are betting that the price of the Bitcoin will rise to $40,000 by the end of 2018. People are even purchasing 5% of 1 Bitcoin so that they can sell it off and earn a profit when the price rises again. Various Bitcoin exchanges like Coinome, Zebpay, Unocoin and several others in India are currently allowing the public to purchase and sell Bitcoin also known as BTC. So, should you invest in Bitcoin? I hope I can help you answer that question by the end of this article.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest individuals and a person who is widely regarded as one of the best investors of his time had this to say about the Bitcoin: “It’s a mirage.”

Several others share his thoughts but does that mean that they are right? Well, they could be but it’s quite difficult to assess something like this and who knows what could happen in the future. Let’s take a look at some important points:

1. Volatility: The price of the Bitcoin has been fluctuating a lot and although it has been termed as a currency, a 15% change in price in a single day is concerning. Although, you wouldn’t be thinking about this today if you had invested in Bitcoin a few years ago because you would have been a millionaire by now.
2. Regulatory problems: Various countries such as China have imposed various restrictions to try and regulate Bitcoin and some countries have even banned the use of Bitcoin completely. Some believe that a few countries are working on their own cryptocurrency which means more regulations.
3. Bubble: Bitcoin has drawn several comparisons to other bubbles in the past specially due to the fluctuations in price and the massive hype surrounding it.
4. Legality: Although, buying or selling a Bitcoin is considered neither legal or illegal in India but the Reserve Bank of India has not declared it a currency yet.
5. Fraud: Various individuals and companies are contacting the public to ask them to invest in Bitcoin through them but because Bitcoin investments are not regulated, if you are cheated by someone you can’t do much about it.
6. Price: The golden rule of investment is to not invest an amount that you cannot afford to lose. If you want to invest in a Bitcoin then purchase a small portion of 1 BTC but do not purchase a large amount if you do not fully understand the market. Also, it would be a good idea to buy it when the price is lower than usual.
7. Future: The market cap of the Bitcoin is much higher than any currency or stock. It is used throughout the world and is truly international.
8. Wallet: After you purchase a Bitcoin online, they are stored in a virtual wallet but they are not entirely secure as the company that owns the wallet might get hacked. It’s important to remember that if you decide to buy bitcoin, do not store it with an online coin exchange platform. Instead, withdraw it and store it on a hardware or offline wallet so that it is secure.
9. Supply: The number of Bitcoin in existence is not expected to exceed 21 million and because there is a finite number, the demand continues to grow.
10. Futures trading: Anyone who has invested in stocks before understands the meaning of futures. Futures are contracts to buy or sell something after a set period of time at a predetermined price. Why am I mentioning this here? It’s because Bitcoin futures could be a reality, in fact US regulators have given the green signal to a few companies to allow Bitcoin futures trading.

Hopefully, some of these points helped you make a decision whether you should or should not currently invest in Bitcoin. Invest wisely and only invest in something you truly understand and believe in.

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In early 2015, the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) was hijacked by the telecom companies that it was supposed to be regulating. It released a consultation paper on Net Neutrality for public feedback.

The question was whether services like Whatsapp and Viber should be brought under an expensive licensing regime.

TRAI put a tiny, hardly noticeable link to the paper on their official government website. They also put in place a tight deadline for public discussion. They hoped the public wouldn’t notice this proposal to fundamentally change in how the internet worked.

Whatsapp had made messaging free of cost. Before Whatsapp, we had to buy costly messaging packs to send short messages. Every international message used to cost around Rs 5 (US $0.08) — a huge source of revenue for telecoms.

Next, several of these messaging apps started offering free calls. This cut into telecom operator revenues even more. Since these messaging apps made a lot of money through advertising, these telcoms hope to take a cut of it themselves.

Indian activists set up a website, savetheinternet.in, where people could answer all the questions that TRAI’s consultation paper was asking. People could then send these answers to TRAI with just a few clicks.

This was a smart move. But still, most people where unaware of the importance of Net Neutrality — the basic rule that all internet traffic should be treated equally, regardless of where it comes from, and that the internet access should be treated like any other utility.

Net Neutrality is a complicated concept, and the typical Indian had no understanding of it, or its importance. So we needed to an effective way to communicate all this.

Thankfully, the comedy group All Indian Bakchod stepped in to help communicate this. Here’s their first video:

Indians sent a million emails to TRAI. (TRAI retaliated by “accidentally” leaking those million email addresses to public.)

Facebook and the telecom operators responded by changing their campaign to try and fool the Indian public into thinking that these corporations were actually in favor of Net Neutrality.

These corporations tried to define Net Neutrality as everyone being able to access some things on the internet. In fact, Net Neutrality is about everyone being able to access everything on the internet.

Facebook launched Internet.org with a major telecom operator, Reliance. They claimed they were providing free internet. In reality, they were providing a very limited slice of the internet with only the websites of companies who were registered with Internet.org. And Facebook had full control of which websites could register.

Of course, none of this was clearly mentioned in their innocuous-seeming promotional videos.

Facebook tried to trick the Indian public into thinking they were making these websites available as out of charity. In reality, they were very clearly violating the principle of Net Neutrality.

Next, TRAI made it more difficult to protest Facebook’s actions by moving the discussion to mygov.in. Now a citizen had to go through a long account registration process in order to make a public comment, and they only had a few days to do so.

All Indian Bakchod again moved in to cast light on these corrupt actions with a second video:

As a result, Facebook’s Internet.org effort was bashed all over the internet for violating Net Neutrality. Facebook rebranded it “Free Basics” and began an expensive marketing campaign to publicize it in every corner of the country.

Look at the normal people just going about their lives, using Facebook for free. They were designed to make people think, “How can Free Basics be a bad thing?” This even made lay-people question the activists.

What is your problem if they are giving us free internet?

Free basics was just another name for Internet.org. Though they changed their branding outside, the source code said otherwise.

Designers responded with parody ads drawing attention to the folly of Free Basics.

And All India Bakchod came back with a third video:

The corporations quietly convinced TRAI to set up yet another short deadline for public discussion. In that time, a lot of emails were sent to TRAI through savetheinternet.in.

There were protests in the street. The Indian media hosted discussion panels where they brought experts from different fields to talk about Net Neutrality.

Here’s a photo of News 9's discussion panel. The Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej stepped in to speak up for the importance of Net Neutrality.

I was also part of the same panel.

Finally, all of these efforts paid off. The public outcry forced TRAI to side with citizens, and against the corporations. They ruled in favor of preserving Net Neutrality.

We had won.

In the big scheme of things, I had hardly contributed anything. The real heroes are the people behind savetheinternet.in like Kiran Jonnalagadda, Nikhil Pahwa and Tanmay Bhat’s team from All India Bakchod, among many other activists. You can read more about them here.

Some of the corporations and their investors weren’t very happy about this. Venture Capitalist Marc Andreessen tweeted this:

After getting utterly trashed in the Indian and American media, he was forced to publicly apologize for this.

India’s story had a happy ending. But America’s may not.

America’s president is currently working to destroy Net Neutrality. The telecom companies have lobbied congress and taken over the Federal Communications Commission. All that stands between these corporations and their bigger profits is us — the public.

I hope India’s Net Neutrality heroes inspire you.

Don’t remain silent. Raise your voice. Educate yourself on the importance of Net Neutrality. Explain its importance to your friends, family, and followers about its importance.

Together we can make sure that America continues to enjoy the same open internet that India does. Let’s do this!

SWAYAM, an upcoming online course platform by the Indian government, has ambitious goals. It’s the one platform that would bind together Indian higher education — both online and offline.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have already helped millions of Indians informally continue their education for free online, and in their free time. But SWAYAM — the Hindi word for “self” — promises to formalize this learning the way university degrees do.

Here is one line in the The Gazette of India (basically an authorized legal document of the Indian government) that got me really excited about SWAYAM:

No university shall refuse any student for credit mobility for the courses earned through MOOCs.

At launch, SWAYAM is expected to have over 2,000 courses, 250,000 hours of content, and over $30 million paid to instructors. Students across all universities in India will be able to earn credits on SWAYAM.

A Brief History of SWAYAM

At Class Central, we were the first ones to write about SWAYAM when it was first announced back in August 2014. It was part of the educational initiatives launched by the newly-elected Prime Minister for India, Narendra Modi.

Since then, SWAYAM seems to have hit several roadblocks. It was supposed to launch in October 2014 with three MOOCs. But it never launched.

SWAYAM is finally moving forward again, and it might even launch on August 15 2016 — India’s Independence Day.

Introducing the University Grants Commission (UGC)

The UGC is the government body responsible for “coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India.”

Last month, the UGC published a couple of documents on its website:

1. a list of MOOCs, and
2. its credit framework for online learning courses through SWAYAM

On further digging by Class Central, we also found another document entitled “Guidelines for Development and Implementation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).”

These documents contain a lot of details like the formal definition of a course, the recording format for videos, how much headroom to maintain in each video (hint: 6–8%), how the credit transfers would work, and so on.

How the courses will work

With 2,000 courses expected to be available at launch, SWAYAM will have the largest course catalog among all MOOC providers from its very first day.

The courses will range from high school to post graduate level.

Soon, we’ll publish a list of the courses that will be part of the SWAYAM platform.

Much of the content for SWAYAM is content that has already been created by Indian institutes, and which will be re-purposed for SWAYAM. One instructor whom Class Central spoke to had created his videos and sent them to the UGC more than three years ago.

NPTEL (a group of seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Science (IISc)) will contribute about half of the courses. NPTEL has already been putting its courses online on YouTube, and it also hosts its own MOOC platform.

All the videos created for SWAYAM will also be also be available on a platform called e-Acharya. E-Acharya already hosts educational video content created by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. These videos are also available on its YouTube channel and might be re-purposed for SWAYAM.

The guidelines also include how much the course instructors will get paid. For the first run of the course, instructors will get paid ₹9 lakhs ($13,500) for re-purposed content, or ₹12 lakhs ($18,000) for newly-created content.

With 2,000 courses, in total over $30 million will be paid to instructors. Instructors will also receive ₹1.5 lakhs ($2,200) for each subsequent run of the course.

How credit mobility works

SWAYAM’s biggest impact lies in its potential to increase the quality of higher education across India.

The courses on SWAYAM will be free to take for anyone in the world. But SWAYAM’s biggest impact lies in its potential to increase the quality of higher education across India.

Not only can students learn from the best universities and colleges in India — they can now earn credits from them via SWAYAM.

The UGC credit framework allows students who are enrolled in higher education programs across India to earn credits via SWAYAM.

Each credit will be the equivalent of 13 to 15 hours of learning activities.

Any academic institution in India can offer up to 20% of its catalog in a particular program via SWAYAM. The institutions also need to provide any resources that students need in order to take SWAYAM courses — like computers or lab space — to those students for free.

To earn these credits, students will need to do all the required assignments and homework for these courses, and then attend a final proctored exam. The exam will be held either in the local institute where the student is enrolled, in a nearby institute, or in a proctored center.

The cost for each exam will be ₹1000 ($15).

Upon successful completion of the course, the institution that taught the MOOC will issue a certificate, along with the number of credits and grades. The student can then get credits transferred into their marks certificate (transcript) issued by the institution that they are enrolled in.

SWAYAM’s strange technology choices

This is the most worrisome part about SWAYAM.

SWAYAM was originally supposed to be built using Open edX, but now it seems that a team at Microsoft is building them a closed-source platform using proprietary technologies.

Earlier in June, Microsoft was selected as a technical partner for SWAYAM. The deal is worth ₹38 crore (~$6 million), and Microsoft will deploy a team of dedicated people to develop and maintain SWAYAM.

When The Indian Express asked R. Subrahmanyam, Additional Secretary for Technical Education at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, about the choice of Microsoft over Open edX, he replied that, “All that appears ‘free’ is not always free!”

You can read more about the entire saga here.

Building a fully-fledged MOOC platform is a major undertaking that other providers have already been doing for years. By not re-purposing a platform that already exists, and which is used by a global community (like Open edX), the SWAYAM team will have to start right from scratch.

They will have to learn everything that the MOOC provider community has already learned. This might cause quite a few hiccups in the first few iterations of SWAYAM.

At the time of writing this post, I was not able to find out which domain SWAYAM will be hosted on. We will be updating this article as soon we know.

Stay up to date with SWAYAM by signing up for MOOCWatch, a monthly monthly digest of everything related to MOOCs — https://www.class-central.com/moocwatch

Dhawal Shah is the founder and CEO of Class Central, the most popular search engine for online courses. You can see which courses he is taking here — class-central.com/@dhawal

Not once, but twice, our college became a part of an International community of highly productive and engaging people. The most recent installment took place on last Saturday, May 21st, 2016. From Lisbon to Lahore, from Belgrade to Bengaluru, from Berlin to Bainbridge, we all came together on a single day to celebrate a Global event, a fun event of teaching, learning & hacking together the concepts of JavaScript / NodeJS. Divided by borders, united by JavaScript! Yes, I’m talking about NodeSchool International Day!

A brief history of NodeSchool

On a fine day, a few people from a little upcoming community of daring open source hackers decided to challenge the world with the powers of a language that others dismissed as “too slow”, “a toy language”, and “web only”. They came together to build what would be a simple “workshopper” module, called stream-adventure.

What’s a workshopper? It’s a simple framework displaying a set of challenges to be completed right in your terminal, and has a test runner incorporated within it to test your code solutions.

javascripting Workshopper

These guys then went on to create the initial workshopper modules, such as javascripting and learnyounode, which consisted of beginner level JS and NodeJS problems. They thought, “Well, this is fun. We should have an event focused on these things!”

Soon, ideas came pouring in, which became modules in the NodeJS ecosystem (npm). Participants created repositories and set up websites. And in late 2013, the first official NodeSchool event was underway in Silicon Valley.

The community started to grow, and local chapters sprang up all over the world. By May 2016, there were more than 165 worldwide city-based chapters, which have hosted more than 500 events so far!

NodeSchool Upcoming and Past Events

Node Comes to Kolkata

In July of last year, I hit upon the idea of hosting a NodeSchool event in my city. Tech-wise, Kolkata is a laid back city with few meetups or hackathons to speak of. Most of the cool events are either in Bangalore or Hyderabad. We have an IT Park — known here as Sector V — which was a promised utopia of budding startups and big companies alike. But let’s just say that it hasn’t flourished as much as those of other metropolitan areas in India.

There are tech companies here, but most are service based. There isn’t much of a product or startup footprint. Undergraduates and graduates in my city miss out on the most important medium for networking and skill learning just because of the current landscape. And thus, they resort to joining service-based IT behemoths, which just treat them as a disposable resource.

Sector V, Kolkata, India

With only a short time to set everything up, I reached out to a NodeSchool core team member, Adam Brady, and asked him to guide me. I had three priorities for the event:

• Create awareness in my city and my college
• Train college students and help them shape up with new technologies
• Put our college to the global map

All NodeSchool Chapters are city based. This meant that, technically speaking, I had to host NodeSchool Kolkata. But due to time and space constraints, I had a better idea. Why not setup a smaller college-level chapter instead? After talking it over with Adam, he agreed to my proposal, and hence the NodeSchool IEM Kolkata Chapter was born on August 2015.

We had our inaugural workshop on August 31st, 2015, with 25 participants. Together, we coded together on mainly beginner NodeSchool modules using JavaScript and Git.

As far as new beginnings go, it exceeded my expectations, to say the least! The attendees went home with a little hands-on knowledge, some freebie stickers, and a lot more confidence! IEM Kolkata was added to the world map, and Max Odgen (principle founder of NodeSchool) commented on our pics!

NodeSchool Workshop in IEM Kolkata on 31st August, 2015

As the Second Law of Thermodynamics predicts, post workshop, the interest disappeared to a minimum. But that didn’t deter me from my goal. I found a few long-term interested people, and started a little newsletter among them. We kept in touch, and shared important links, resources, and tutorials among ourselves.

Fast forward to May 2016. NodeSchool International Day was just right around the corner, and planning started barely one week before it! Himanshu Kashyap, a final-year student, helped me out this time by publicizing the event, handling back-end tasks, and mentoring. We sent out invitations, cached the workshop software so we could use it offline, configured our website, and enrolled in the International Day Chapter. We were get-set-go for the event! We even got the Indian School of Ethical Hacking — a startup founded by our alumnus Kirit Sankar Gupta — to sponsor the event!

Nature worked against us this time. Heavy rains throughout the city prevented half the people who had already registered for the event from showing up. Still we went ahead, with the true spirit of Nodeschool International Day, and started the proceedings with the Bengaluru and Osaka teams.

Last time we had some hiccups setting everything up, but this time since the workshops were already cached in my system (local-npm), and installations were a breeze.

By lunchtime, everyone had completed the basic javascripting module, and was hungry for more! After lunch, we proceeded with Git, Github, and NodeJS basics with the git-it and learnyounode module. We also had a live Appear.in chat with Ian Crowther, London Chapter host, as well as the Tokyo and Berlin Chapters! At the end of the day, we distributed stickers and coasters, and then popped by Bisk Farm for a round of snacks and drinks.

I eventually plan to merge our chapter with a bigger NodeSchool Kolkata chapter once we get enough interested people. It takes time to develop interest and awareness in our city, but we should all strive for it nonetheless.

According to The Guardian, India will have over 1 million people turning 18 every month for the next two to three years! That is a huge load for our society to bear at once. Also, our country is facing an acute shortage of skilled engineers, and 80% of the current crop of engineers are considered unemployable by some studies. Why? Causes range from mediocre engineering colleges, low quality classroom education, less opportunity, and most importantly, less networking.

Not all is bad about my city, though. We are experiencing a slow influx of city-based startups, thanks to some cool entrepreneurs, such as Sumeet Chawla, who founded JustStickers.in, where we buy cool stickers and coasters for our events. His love for this city dragged him away from Bangalore, and he brought back his experience and immediately put it to use. We need more entrepreneurs like him to build innovative products and in turn help our city inch toward becoming a more technology-friendly place.

Stickers and Coasters from JustStickers at our Nodeschool Event, May 2016

Members of NodeSchool and Free Code Camp communities have something much more important than raw expertise. They have heart, a desire to network, and an eagerness to help others. This drives up the competency level of each and every participant.

Collaboration is the key to success. We hope to build a better tech community in our city by holding regular events like Nodeschool, Free Code Camp, and keep pushing our city toward becoming a more informed, skilled and proactive generation.

Join me in this Quest. For the City of Joy.

Many thanks to Arijit Layek for the awesome edits and constant motivation. If you would like to get in touch, contact me on Gitter. Help us plan a bigger Nodeschool Kolkata event.